There is consensus in research, policy, business and many other areas around the benefits of creativity. Previous research shows that creativity is only spurred under certain conditions. Usually creativity is not associated with concepts such as control, deadline or cost effectiveness. Companies, by contrast, have the need for control and management of their operations, which implies that the two processes can be difficult to reconcile. A company that wants a high creativity while maintaining control and management is forced into a series of organizational compromises.

This thesis investigates the effects of active ownership on the return on assets (ROA) of Swedish listed companies during the years 2003 to 2013. Active ownership is operationalized based on the probabilistic voting model that is used to calculate the minimum amount of shares the largest shareholder needs in order to possess control of a contested vote at the shareholder meeting. We study the three largest lists on the Nasdaq OMX Stockholm, having 1454 observations from 207 companies to test our hypothesis. The main result from the study is that there's a significant positive relationship between active ownership and ROA during the investigated period. The active owners' relative strength also proves to have a significant positive relationship to ROA..

The aim of this study was to examine if the predictions of the herbage quality in the software Grazemore Decision Support System (DSS) gives a reliable ground for milk production in the north of Scandinavia. Pasture samples from one research farm (Umeå) and one organic farm (Nordingrå) was analysed on crude protein and organic matter digestibility. The results were statistically compared to the predicted values. Measured and predicted herbage mass was compared and a control if the predictions of milk production improved if the predicted input were replaced by the values from the analysis, was made. The concentration of crude protein was underestimated by the model on both farms and the relationship between actual and predicted values was poor. Mean Prediction Error (MPE) was 24% and 31% respectively.

Traditional financial management has lately been criticized, since it gives inadequate and unilateral information for decisions and strategy of the operation. The purpose of this essay is to investigate if a balanced scorecard is able to work together with a budget and become a stronger control system for the management. Essential theory underlies the gathering of data as well as the analysis, and the empirical investigation is based on personal interviews. The conclusions drawn from my analysis are that two parallel control systems could complement each other?s weaknesses.

Vår avsikt med uppsatsen är att beskriva och analysera medias larmrapporters inverkan på livsmedelsprodukternas nuvarande situation och framtid. Vi undersöker varför vissa företag lyckas bättre respektive misslyckas med sin krishantering utifrån hur de bemöter larmen.Vi har utgått från teorin Crisis Management, där vi har funnit en applicerbar modell på vårt syfte, Crisis Response System, som kompletteras med sårbarhetsmodellen A Simple model of Crisis Susceptibility. Dessa modeller behandlar den interna krishanteringen. För att externt kunna bemöta larmrapporter har vi valt att tillämpa PR-modellen Communication Strategies for Responding to a Crisis där paralleller dras till delar ur ryktes- och trovärdighetsmodellen Brand-Building Blocks..

Detta examensarbete har syftat till att utveckla ett verktyg för att utvärdera en IT-avdelnings möjligheter till effektivisering genom att implementera Lean på IT Service Management. Verktyget har utvecklats i samarbete med Tina Eriksson på uppdrag av management och IT-management konsultbolaget Connecta AB. Connecta AB har som syfte att använda verktyget för framtida affärer. För att verktyget ska vara användbart och uppfylla Connectas krav så har fyra mål satts upp. Verktyget ska vara trovärdigt, resurseffektivt, användarvänligt samt underlätta för fortsatt arbete och implementering av Lean på IT Service Management.

Abstract Titel: Budget development ? a study of multinational industrial companies Date: 2011-05-27 Authors: Daniel Claesson & Tobias Kronvall Supervisor: Fredrik Karlsson Examiner: Lars-Göran Aidemark Purpose: The main purpose of this study is to follow up and to do a comparison                of a study of Arwidi & Samuelson (1991) where we describe and explain budget change, from the traditional budget to today´s modern business management, in some of the leading listed Swedish industrial companies. We will also examine which objectives of the budget are highlighted in the companies. Further, we examine the relationship between                         organization, strategies and budgeting and how it affects the company            management. Method: In this study we used a qualitative approach. We used a multiple case                  study to examine corporate approach to budgeting.

AbstractGrowing up with a functionally disabled sibling can bring joy and positive experiences, but also complications. The purpose of this paper is to describe the experience of growing up with a functionally disabled sibling. I have chosen to focus the examination on how individuals with functionally disabled siblings believe they have been affected by their relationship to their functional disabled sibling and whether it has continued to affect them in adulthood.The examination was qualitative and conducted through interviews. The results showed that siblings of functionally disabled individuals tend to grow up with strong feelings of responsibility and anxiety that continue to affect them into adulthood. The investigation further showed that all interviewed chose occupations in care, and that they give great attention to relationships to others.

Uppsatsen baseras på en fallstudie av högteknologiföretaget Scalado AB, där vi utifrån organisationslivscykelteorier har studerat de ledarskaps- och managementutmaningar som uppkommer vid ett företags uppstart och under dess liv..

A major issue that has been a subject for quite some time is whether there will be a scarcity of metals in the bedrock in the future and whether or not we might end up with a problem similar to that of the big oil crisis in the mid-seventies. Following the oil crisis many oil companies started up with risk management to control future risks. This work presents how Swedish mining companies work with risk management to handle risks that might come up in the future due to metal scarceness. How Swedish mining companies look at the possible metal scarceness and if they use risk management in their decision-making process is studied. By doing interviews with Swedish owned mining companies it was found that the mining companies did not see the future metal scarcity as a risk, even though 2/3 of the companies acknowledged the scarceness to be a reality.

It has in a broader extent become important for companies and other organizations with large organizations to have a properly functioning web platform where content management is an essential part. Polopoly is a web content management system developed in Sweden, used by several European corporations but foremost Scandinavian such working in different media related business areas.Our aim has been to analyze this tool and render a report which hopefully will assist the initiator of our thesis; a consulting enterprise called Qurius, in their negotiations with future customers, when to suggest Polopoly as a suitable content management solution.By using case studies at companies currently using Polopoly, our goal is to define which characteristic makes the product a competitive publishing tool. To put our analysis in perspective, we will compare the most important aspects of Polopoly with a similar product.According to the results of our investigation we consider Polopoly being a beneficial choice with regard to a number of important parameters. Finally we have summarized these properties in a list of examples explaining in which cases Polopoly is a preferable alternative as a web based content management platform..

Management consulting firms are dependent on attracting and recruiting new talents since the human capital has a vital role in these types of organizations. In the following years a new generation, Generation Y, will to a large extent enter the labour market. According to several studies this generation has different characteristics than older generations.This thesis examines management consulting firms? views of Generation Y and which strategies they use to attract and retain the generation. The fact that the subjects are unexplored led the authors to conduct a qualitative study of seven management consulting firms through in-depth interviews.

AbstractIn the fall of 2003 a project was started in the Swedish building sector that is called BASTA (the building sectors’ termination of especially harmful substances). The project is operated by the building companies NCC, Skanska, PEAB and JM, the Swedish Building Industry and the Swedish Environmental Institute IVL. The purpose of the project is to create a common environmental assessment system for the entire building industry and with the help of this system phase out the use of especially harmful properties from building products.In a large sense BASTA works like this; On the BASTA web site there is a database, to which a supplier can register the company and the company’s products. Only those products with a substance content that fulfil the demands of the BASTA system, is to be registered. As it is the supplier himself that carries out the registration of the company and the company’s products to the system, the BASTA-organisation annually controls that the companies that are registered in the database, fulfils BASTA’s demands.Since NCC is one of the companies that operates BASTA, BASTA is probably going to be the environmental assessment system that is recommended for the company in the future.

The purpose of this essay is to examine how four Swedish retail companies describe their information management in connection to ethical trade. My purpose is also to examine how this information management relates to organizational learning. My questions at issue are ? ?Which activities related to information management in connection to ethical trade is described by the companies?? and ?How can these activities and statements be related to organizational learning?? My method of investigation is to perform qualitative interviews with representatives from the retail companies and relate the results to theories on information management and organizational learning, mainly theories of double-loop- and single-loop learning. The information management literature address issues such as information needs, information sources and information seeking.

AbstractThere is a lot of confusion when it comes to defining Special Education. An example of this appears here by a statement from Assarson (2007) "Special Education initiates a special pedagogy, but contains no innate sense of what is the special component in it" (p. 52, authors? translation). This study is an attempt to clarify the elements of the concept.